As Ventura Unified School District transitions into the second and final semester of the school year, the class of 2022 at Foothill Tech is ramping up its senior celebrations. The Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech) Dragons basketball team had their turn on Friday, Jan. 29 to honor their five seniors at Ventura College against the Laguna Blanca School Owls. 

Seniors Chloe Scofield, Rome Falcocchia, Emma Bartlett, Shaun Taylor and Ashlyn Gomez were accompanied by family members and given flowers, balloons and goodie bags as underclassmen teammates made kind remarks about their older teammates.

Gomez described the night, saying, “it was the best feeling ever, I was so excited, everyone was laughing and just having a great time.”

Coach Chuck Ferris ended the ceremony with words of his own, saying “those five seniors, they mean the world to this program. Let’s get warm-ups going, and we’ll get this game started.”

The starting lineup of all five seniors took the floor, and the game commenced with Falcocchia directing the opening tip to Bartlett. The subsequent unsuccessful possession gave Laguna Blanca the opportunity they needed to take the first lead of the game and they did just that with a mid-range shot off the glass. 

That would prove to be the Owls’ first and last lead of the game, as the Dragons jump-started their high-octane offense with offensive rebounds and transition buckets. Taylor and Scofield dominated the boards and the paint; with both of them scoring layups on a put-back and an in-bound.

Gomez and Bartlett shined together, combining on steals, layups in transition and back-to-back three-pointers to stretch the Dragons lead to 16-4. 

Moving into the second quarter, Falcocchia took charge with consecutive right-handed layups before the Dragon underclassmen finally got into the game. Mia Gray ‘23 scored three baskets in the period and Bartlett and Gomez continued to increase the Foothill Tech lead to 37-6 at halftime.

The contest slowed down in the second half as the Dragons focused on the defensive side of the ball. The Owls were stifled to start the half and met with a shot clock violation, a steal from Gomez, an air-ball and a Scofield block on their first four possessions.

The Foothill Tech frontcourt furthered their advantage as a layup from Scofield and a layup and three from Falcocchia made the score 44-9. 

Esmi Cesarez ‘23 checked in and made an immediate impact, scoring a layup and jumper from beyond the mark to firmly put away the Owls. A final layup from Petra Falcocchia ‘24 lengthened the final score to 61-11. 

After the game, Coach Ferris showed the bond he and his senior players share, showing visible emotion when reflecting on his memories with them. “I feel like I’ve known these girls forever now at this point, so to see them coming to the end of their final high school season, it’s pretty tough. 

Taylor enjoyed the night, saying, “it was really fun, I feel like this year was really hard for us because of Covid, so it was really nice to finally be able to celebrate the five seniors who were graduating.”

Bartlett shared her similar experience from the night, “we were all happy obviously, Senior Night, its a big deal. We were all having fun on the court, just relaxed.”

The Dragons have continued their run in league and look to beat the Thacher School Toads again on Wednesday, Feb. 2 to finish 8-1 in league.